It doesn’t matter how old you are, where you live or what your style is – some garments are totally universal, regardless of the factors that make us unique. Solid, classic or essential, they will be part of your wardrobe from age 6 to 96. A puffer jacket in a neutral colour, a perfectly-tailored beige trench coat and a straight-legged pair of jeans. That simplicity of the everyday was the starting point for the Italian-bred English designer Neil Barrett whose AW20 collection riffed on finding novelty in tradition. His latest co-ed show was a demonstration how covetable these familiar ideas can look like when explored in a new way.
By providing his loyal customers with a powerful basis of their next seasonal staples, the designer enables them to explore the more adventurous parts of his business. Buying into this brand is a lifestyle investment. In addition to the clean lines and long-lasting silhouettes, Barrett allowed for some special moments to shine, including collaborative pieces Milanese graffiti artist Red who reworked famous artworks including Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring.
Parts of the collection even referenced Barrett’s archival pieces. Achieving that evergreen feeling was the opening hybrid biker-coat that first made its appearance in the AW03 collection, or the classic puffer jacket which goes all the way back to AW00. Sometimes, it’s not about reinventing the wheel, but rather tightening the screws or pumping the tire so you can ride even more smooth. And that’s exactly what Barrett did last night – a fashion mechanic extraordinaire.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans.
